Truth be told
by meara29
Summary: Is Cinderella really what the storybooks say? Did she really have a fairy godmother or stepsisters? Lucia is now prepared to tell all
1. Default Chapter

The story of Cinderella has been retold many times, and changed each time in the retelling. But none of them come close to touching the truth. They say that Cinderella's father was a rich merchant, or perhaps a baron. They say that Cinderella was made servant in her own home by a mean stepmother, and downtrodden by two stepsisters, until a prince noticed her (with the help of a fairy godmother, of course). That would have taken a miracle. Most princes are far too sheltered from the masses to notice a servant girl (either one born to that station, or forced into it). And the sad thing is, most people believe the tall tales.

So, my sister Kate has put me up to telling the tale, as I am the better writer and storyteller, as she says. For starters, my name is Lucia. Kate, short for Kathryn, is my twin sister, and the older by nearly half an hour. We are supposedly identical, but that could hardly be further from the truth, although I suppose you'll see that later. Anyway, on with my story.

Kate and I were born in the city of Basel, capital city of Tel. Our father was none other than the king himself. Our mother was the younger daughter of the king of the neighboring country, Cadiffor. Our country, Tel, was not very big, in comparison to the other countries in the area, hence the myth that father was only a lord or a merchant that owned a good bit of land.

As kids we were relatively happy. As we were small, nobody was in any hurry to tell us to behave like ladies. Our father was always away, for maybe three months at a time. He did this to 'maintain good relations with our neighboring countries'. Our mother died when we were five, barely old enough to remember her. Our father had come back from the country of Girona only a short time before she died, and was scheduled to leave again, this time for Bandalong only a short time later.

The night after our mother died, he called us in to his study to talk to us.

'Girls,' He began.

'Yes father,' we said in unison.

'I´m sending you to live with your aunt Achren for a little while,' he said.

Achren was our mother´s older sister, and now queen of Cadiffor.

'But why father?' Kate asked.

'Because, I have to go away for a while,' Father replied. 'So you will live with your aunt until I come back.'

'We will come back soon won´t we?' I asked.

'Yes you will,' Father replied. 'You two leave in a week, and a few weeks later, you will be right back here with me.'

And so it was. We went to live with our aunt Achren. A week later, we were both seated in one of our father´s carriages, a servant between us, on the way to Lerida, the capital city of Cadiffor.

Our aunt was waiting for us on the steps to her castle. My first impression of her was that she must be a witch, though I was much to shy to say such a thing to her face. She was tall and slim, with sharp features, and waist length greying hair. I was surprised that she was so old, though life sometimes works that way, with many years between siblings.

'Hello Kate, hello Lucia,' she said to us. 'Welcome to Lerida.'


	2. living and learning with Aunt Achren

'How was the ride here?' she asked us.

My sister and I were both too shy to speak, so our servant, a woman by the name of Bronwyn, answered for us. 'Pleasant enough,' she replied. 'No bandits, no storms.'

My aunt looked at me and Kate. 'Don´t worry you two. I´m not going to eat you, whatever anyone may say about me.'

This did not reassure me much. The thought of bad rumors about my aunt made me wonder what kind of person I had come to live with.

There was a moment´s pause before my aunt said to us, 'Come! Let me show you to your rooms. Then you two and your servant can come join me for dinner.'

With that, our aunt-queen turned and led us into the castle. Kate and I were both awed by the castle, though it was much like any castle, with grand entryway, sprial staircases, towers, and the lot. But, we weren´t to discover most of that yet. Our aunt led us to our room on the top floor of a wing of the building mostly used for housing nobles that came to visit. The top floor was right under the roof, and there were only three rooms. Our aunt pushed open the door to the middle room and led us inside.

'This room used to belong to my mother and I when we were little,' she said.

My sister and I were both impressed. We had no idea that we were coming to such luxury. There were all of the toys we loved to play with, and plenty of space. My sister Kate immediately ran to one of the windows.

'I can see everything from up here!' she exclaimed.

Emboldened by my sister´s actions, I too ran to look out the windows.

'I´ll leave you here to unpack,' My aunt said. 'Dinner is in one hour.'

Dinner was a rather nervous affair. Aunt Achren had her most important advisors and others sitting on her right, my sister, Bronwyn, and I on her left. Aunt Achren introduced us to all of them, but I did not really remember their names until much later. Aunt Achren tried to make conversation with us a few times. Kate, as usual, was much more gregarious than I, asking questions about everything, though Aunt Achren answered only some of them.

'Narcissa, my head maid, will show you everything tomorrow,' Aunt Achren said. 'Tonight, I have a feeling that you will all want to sleep.'

Bronwyn accompanied us to our room, tucking us in, as always, and then left for her room.

'Isn´t this great Lucia?' Kate asked. 'All this space just for us!'

I nodded. 'I can´t wait to explore tomorrow,' I said.

'I wonder if this place has secret passages,' Kate said, yawning and leaning back on her pillow.

I snuggled deeper under the covers, wondering what living with this strange aunt would be like.

The next morning, we were woken by Bronwyn.

'We must be ready soon,' Bronwyn said. 'Narcissa will be here soon to show you the castle and grounds – at least as much of it as you need to know.'

'What do you mean 'you'? Aren´t you coming?' I asked.

'Your father needs me back in Basel,' Bronwyn said. 'But don´t worry. I met Narcissa a short while ago, and she is very nice. She will help you. Now up you get.'

Bronwyn helped us dress as quickly as possible, and brushed our hair. Soon, there was a knock at the door.

'Enter,' Bronwyn called.

A woman in maid´s garb stepped into the room.

'Good morning girls,' she said, smiling. 'I am Narcissa. I will be showing you everything today.'

And show us everything she did, or so it first seemed. She showed us all the gardens, the ones for food, the ones for flowers, and the more park like gardens simply meant for taking a walk outside in the fresh air among the trees. Narcissa took us through the stables; not only the one for the horses, but the barn where sheep and cows were kept. After lunch, which we ate with Narcissa in the kitchen, she showed us the castle.

The Great Hall was quite impressive, with high ceiling and even a stained glass window. This was where our aunt held all important functions, such as formal parties or dinners. The Great Hall was right in the center of the castle, with everything else built around it. The entryway in front of the Great Hall had two passages leading off of it, one to the right, and one to the left. The passage to the right led around one side of the great hall to the residential wing of the palace, and passage to the led around the other side to the kitchens, the dining room for less formal occasions, and the library. And a couple of rooms that my aunt used for smaller, less formal meetings with wealthy people who wished their business to be private.

Narcissa then led us up to one of the towers. She positioned a small bench under one of the windows.

'There now you two,' she said. 'Climb up and have a look.'

We did as we were bade, and looked out across the landscape. The castle was up on a large hill, not quite a mountain, overlooking the kingdom. Our aunt was the queen of a small kingdom, and from the particular window we stood at, one could see all the way into our home country, the view was that good. From the other side of the tower, we could not see nearly as far off. A wall of mountains rose up in the distance.

'What´s on the other side of those mountains?' I asked.

'Those mountains are the border with the country of Girona,' Narcissa replied. 'Those mountains go right around the edge of Cadiffor, except for that way.' Narcissa pointed back towards our home. 'Which is Tel, the country your father rules.'

'Look!' Kate exclaimed. 'We can see all the people from up here!'

I ran to the window she stood at. This window looked down on the capital city of Lerida, right at the base of the hill that the castle sat on. We could indeed see people going about their business on the streets below us. We stayed up there watching until Narcissa pulled us away for dinner.

The next day, however, was far less enjoyable.

Our aunt insisted that we go to see her as soon as we had finished with breakfast. She led us into a relatively little used room next to the informal dining room.

'Today,' she began. 'You begin school.'

We both stared at her.

'I will not have my nieces growing up uneducated,' she said. 'Now, can either of you two read?'

We shook our heads. 'But we know the alphabet,' I said.

'Well, better than nothing,' my aunt said. 'Some days I will teach you myself, sometimes Narcissa, and sometimes whoever has the time.'

From that day on, our noses were put to the grindstone, as much as a five year old can be put to the grindstone. We spent three hours each morning learning to read and write, and how to do sums. Our aunt was strict, but did not push us to extremes. The afternoons, we more or less had free, watched of course, by Narcissa, or whatever other servant could be spared to watch us.


	3. the fight

While we lived with Aunt Achren, we got to know all her servants, the castle, and grounds quite well. Aunt Achren never allowed us to go very far unaccompanied, and certainly not into the city, always asking: 'Now what would I tell your father if something happened to you?'

Three weeks later, as promised, Bronwyn was at the door, waiting to take us home. To our surprise, Aunt Achren decided to accompany us. She left one of her counselors in charge while she was gone, and had her own carriage readied to accompany us.

As we sat in the carriage on the way home, Kate and I chattered happily over our three weeks. We told her about learning to read and write, and exploring the castle.

When we had finally talked ourselves out, Bronwyn asked, 'What did you two do to upset her?'

'Nothing,' Kate said. 'We´ve been good, haven´t we Lucia?'

I nodded in agreement. 'We didn´t do anything. We only broke one crystal glass and one plate on accident, and we didn´t ever get very dirty.'

'Hmm,' Bronwyn said. 'Something is troubling your Aunt, and no mistaking that. Troubling her greatly I might add. I saw it in her eyes when she met me at the door, and she wouldn´t have decided to come with us, instead of sending a letter, unless there were something wrong.'

Kate and I fell silent at that. We had not done anything to provoke our Aunt´s anger, so far as I could see.

That night as Bronwyn led us to bed, we passed by my father´s study, where he was talking to our aunt. We all stopped at the sound of raised voices.

'I strongly suggest that you let your daughters live with me permanently, instead of for a few weeks every time you need to go away,' Aunt Achren said. 'Or keep them yourself, Rhyan.'

'Why is this so important to you that they are one place or the other permanently?' our father said.

'Your daughters are five, nearly six already!' Aunt Achren exclaimed. 'How do you expect them to ever learn what they need to know, if they are forever shuttled from one place to another?'

'They´re only five, they have plenty of time,' our father said.

'You should know better than to say things like that!' Aunt Achren spat. 'I may be old and out of the loop in some people´s books, but I still know that most royal families train their daughters and sons from a young age. And the nobles and merchant classes are always eager to rise to the next level, and have their children at the very least maintain the same level, but you know how they clamor for our attention, and seek to have their children marry into royal families.'

Father sighed. 'I suppose you´re right,' he said. 'But we have to be careful. We can´t push them too far, or they will hate us, and become sullen and stubborn.'

'You think I don´t know how to manage people?' Aunt Achren said.

'So what do you suggest?' Father asked. 'Is it too much of a burden for them to be with you?'

Bronwyn did not allow us to hear the rest of the conversation, hustling us off to bed. Neither Kate nor I slept normally that night. We were still disturbed by the fight, that our almost six year old brains could not understand. The next morning, however, we did begin to understand.


	4. return to Lerida

The next morning, our father called Kate and I to speak with him after breakfast.

'Your aunt and I had a talk last night,' he said. 'When I go away next time, you two will go to live with your aunt again. Only this time, you won´t come back when I come back. You two are going to stay with your aunt.'

'Why daddy?' Kate asked.

'Because you are big girls, and big girls need to go to school,' father replied.

'Why can´t we go to school here?' Kate asked.

'Because your aunt is a smart lady,' father said. 'Don´t pout girls, you will come home for the holidays.'

'When do we have to go?' I asked.

'In two weeks,' father replied.

Kate, rebellious from day one, convinced me to hide with her the day we had to leave. We chose an old armoire in an unused guest room as our hiding place. Bronwyn, who knew us quite well, found us within an hour, but even so, father was furious at the delay in everyone´s departure.

Kate sat stone faced the entire journey, despite my attempts to cheer her up.

'But it will be an adventure,' I said. 'And you like adventure Kate.'

'But we´ve already had this adventure,' Kate replied.

'Well, well, I never thought I´d see this day,' Bronwyn chuckled. 'Lucia trying to convince Kate that something is an adventure, and therefore good.'

We arrived at Aunt Achren´s near suppertime, as we had on our previous visit. We were put up in the same nursery room as before.

'Are you staying with us this time?' I asked Bronwyn.

'For a little while,' Bronwyn replied.

'How long is a little while?' I asked.

'Until your aunt decides that a little while is over,' she replied.

The next morning our aunt put us right to work. Not only were we learning the normal school subjects in the morning, like reading, writing, and arithmetic, we were only given an hour of after lunch. We were then sent to Murphy's school of dance in the city. As we later learned, Murphy had been teaching dance for almost twenty years. It was obvious however that she knew what she was doing. Aunt Achren had us signed up to learn everything that Murphy could teach. Murphy only kept us for an hour a day at first, until we had mastered the basics, and then moved to training us two hours a day. Kate and I were usually so exhausted that we did not do much for the rest of the day.

It was three weeks before Bronwyn left. Kate and I were both sorry to see her go. She had been our companion and main caregiver since mother died (except for the first 3 weeks we had lived with Aunt Achren).

'Don't cry girls, you will see her again,' Aunt Achren said to us. 'Come, you still have school this morning.'

Aunt Achren did not pay much attention to us during the day. As she told us, she had 'Queen stuff' to do, and left much of our education to tutor, or to Murphy.

A week after Bronwyn left, Aunt Achren had a ball. All of Cadiffor's nobles, many from Girona, and even some from Tel were invited. My sister and I were dressed up in our finest clothes, and allowed to stay up late for this occasion. We stayed near our aunt much of the time, as we were too shy to speak to many people.

'Go wander around a bit,' our aunt eventually told us.

And so we did. We soon found that we were not the only younger ones there. One of our cousins from Tel was there (the son of our father's younger brother). We stopped to talk with him, but before we could get a word out, we heard someone's voice saying, 'Oh, look, it is Queen Achren's other nieces.'

We looked around and found the speaker to be a girl of maybe 12 or 13.

'What's your name?' Kate asked.

'I'm Henrietta,' she said. 'Queen Achren must be forgetting to tell you things. She is my aunt too.'

'But our mom had only one sister: our aunt, and they didn´t have any brothers. How is our aunt your aunt too?' Kate asked.

'Queen Achren was married once,' Henrietta said. 'Her husband's younger brother is my father.'

I did not like the way she talked. She talked down at us, like we were much less than she. I knew that others might be smarter or know more than me, but I did not like having it rubbed in my face.

Henrietta seemed intent on keeping a close watch on my sister and me for the duration of the time we were at the ball, and took every opportunity to show how much more she knew than we did. We were glad when Narcissa found us and brought us back to our room.

'I don't like Henrietta,' Kate announced.

'I know dearie,' Narcissa said. 'But you will have to put up with her.'

'I know,' Kate said gloomily. 'Aunt Achren is her aunt too.'

'And you will be seeing her more than you like,' Narcissa finished. 'You´d better get used to the idea.'


	5. the days of our lives

It may sound like our aunt was a hard taskmaster, keeping us working all morning, and a good part of the afternoon, but in reality it was not as bad as one might imagine. It was no different than, say, the modern second grade. Aunt Achren and our tutors knew that as we were barely six, they could not expect us to be on the level an adult. We had two afternoons a week off from dance, and one morning off a week from school. We progressed that way quite peacefully for the next few years, book learning in the mornings and dancing in the afternoon.

The rules for my sister and I may have been strict, but we were allowed our time off. Kate engineered pranks on occasion, that we both were guilty of carrying to completion. Aunt Achren tried to instill in us the ideology that we were of a higher class than the servants or common people, but it never fully took. We often would go to the kitchens, and beg to be allowed to help. It was during those years that I discovered my love for cooking. Kate never took quite as well to it. She preferred the stables and horses. I followed her there my share of times, but she was the one that the animals seemed to love.

Sometimes on one of our afternoons free, we snuck into the great hall, to spy on our aunt and her advisors. We were curious what she did all day, what she meant when she had told us that she had 'Queen stuff' to do. The hall was so large that nobody noticed when we slid in a side door and hid behind a tapestry. As we were still children, the burocracy did not interest us much. But occasionally, we did hear something interesting. We learned, for example, that our aunt had a low regard for most of the nobles in her realm.

Despite her opinion of the rest of the nobility, our aunt would still occasionally host balls, never leaving out the upper crust of Cadiffor, in her attempts to maintain relationships between all the important people of the surrounding countries. During these balls, Henrietta kept an annoyingly close watch on my sister and I. We soon met her younger sister Hedwig, who was about our age. We had no idea, however, how much more we would be seeing them in years to come.

Every so often, we did go home to our father´s castle. The first time we went back after permanently moving in with Aunt Achren, we immediately saw the changes. Father had become increasingly interested in trade, and had begun to trade with other countries for all manner of exotic plants and animals. He had built a greenhouse for all his strange new plants (he would not allow these plants into the wild, for fear that they would destroy the ones already living in our country). He had also managed to procure examples of several interesting creatures, including a Pegasus, and a unicorn.

One day when we were admiring father´s new creatures, we were startled by a few centaurs riding up behind us. Father had invited them to come live in the area. Much to our surprise, a group of elves had also moved into the area, and a group of gnome craftsmen. We got to know them all during our stays at home. The gnomes taught us much about metallurgy, weaving, and ceramics. The centaurs taught us about the stars, their positions and the names of the constellations. The elves taught us much about living in the forest, and the plants found there. We became especially good friends with an elf-boy named Per, and a centaur named Roan, who were both only a few years older than us. We discovered the centaurs to have very humanlike minds, though they tended to be much wiser, as living past a hundred was not strange to them. We were always sad to leave them when we had to return to our aunt´s. Not that our aunt never had any dealings with interesting plants, animals, and other beings.

One afternoon, we discovered that our aunt owned a few different species of dragon. First of all, there was the small water dragon that lived in the lake near the castle. As we later learned, water dragons were one of the smaller varieties, not usually any bigger than a medium sized dog, and often closer to the size of a cat. Then there were the cave dragons that mostly lived in the mountains. As adults the smallest cave dragons were the size of a large dog, and the largest were the size of a not quite full grown pony. We also heard of fire breathing dragons, though they were much more rare, and our aunt never had any. They also tended to live in caves in the mountains, but were far bigger than the standard cave dragons, the smallest adult being the size of a horse, and the largest ones being the size of a house.

We would have been happy to stay in this type of environment forever, but it was not to be. When we were twelve, our lives changed forever.

Kate and I made a point of once every few weeks hiding behind a tapestry to listen in on what our aunt talked about with her counsellors. This particular day, we were brought up in discussion.

'My lady, you must choose an heir,' her counsellors would occasionally advise.

'I am well aware of the situation. As my late husband and I never had any children, I must choose someone to rule when I am gone,' Aunt Achren replied. 'You must be patient.'

'But my lady, should something happen to you before you have chosen an heir, there could be civil war,' another counsellor advised. 'There are several who could claim to be the person for the throne.'

'I am aware of that,' Aunt Achren replied. 'But, Kate, Lucia, and Hedwig are still children. I want to wait to see what they grow to become. I don´t want any fools on my throne. Henrietta as well has growing yet to do.'

'Lucia, Kate, and Hedwig are twelve. I doubt we should call them children anymore,' the first counsellor said.

Aunt Achren nodded. 'Their father might do well to notice that as well.'

Later that day, she called us in to tell us that we would be going back to our father´s the following weekend. As much as we relished the thought of going home, we had come to love Aunt Achren, despite her strict ways.

Our father, had for a long time treated us as small children, though we were grown up enough to resent it. For the first time, however, he seemed to notice.

'I should send you off to finishing school,' he said. 'And teach you how to rule during the vacations.'


	6. off to finishing school

'Finishing School?' Kate gasped.

'What for?' I asked. 'What´s wrong with staying with Aunt Achren?'

'I need you all to learn how to behave like ladies,' Father said. 'And your aunt isn´t exactly much of a model.'

Kate and I started in surprise.

'What do you mean, she´s not much of a model?' Kate asked.

'You´ll figure it out when you get older,' Father said.

Kate growled slightly. While neither of us felt especially adult, we hated being referred to as a child, especially Kate.

'When do we have to leave for finishing school?' I asked.

'In a fortnight´s time,' Father said. 'You´re dismissed.'

Kate whirled and stalked out. I followed, close on her heels. Kate flung herself on her bed, almost crying. I jumped up on the bed beside her, equally angry.

'Just because Aunt Achren isn´t a prissy little snot, like all the rest of the royal women,' Kate said. 'What is wrong with a woman ruling anyway?'

'I hate traditions,' I said. 'That´s why some people hate Aunt Achren so. Most women don´t rule, or at least not by themselves.'

'Men,' Kate scoffed. 'Always afraid of us women.'

I did not respond. I agreed with her, but neither of us was in a position to change much. Twelve year olds had to do as they were told. I did not say anything to Kate for the rest of the evening. Sometimes saying something would make her more cranky and perverse.

As I crawled into bed that evening, I remembered the conversation that Aunt Achren had with her counsellor.

'Kate,' I called softly.

'What,' she muttered.

'Aunt Achren has to choose her successor, remember?' I said.

Kate grunted.

'Well, what if that were one of us?' I asked.

'Your point?' Kate asked, propping herself up on one elbow.

'That´s our chance to prove what us girls are worth,' I said.

A grin spread across Kate´s face. 'That, is a most excellent idea,' she said. 'We learn to be the best at everything, and then we HAVE to be respected.'

'Or just get everyone to like us, and then they won´t have a problem with women queens,' I said.

'We can do both,' Kate said. 'I´m feeling much more ready for finishing school. Thank you Lucia.'

With that, she flopped back down on her bed, and was soon asleep. I grinned, glad that I had cheered Kate up.

In the two weeks that followed, I have never seen Kate more interested in learning anything and everything. She raced around from place to place, insisting on being taught everything, dragging me with her. I was quite content to move more slowly, mastering one thing before beginning another. I was already becoming something of a cook, thanks to our cook Maggie´s help. She and Bronwyn taught Kate and I to barter in the marketplace, and how to recognize quality foods and goods.

The gardener taught us something of what he knew, struggling to hide laughter at Kate´s enthusiasm.

'Patience child,' he said.

He and Maggie were the only ones that got away with calling Kate 'Child'.

'I will teach you as the seasons come,' he said. 'I teach you the planting in the spring, the harvesting in the fall, and everything in its time in between.'

The captain of father´s guard chuckled when Kate asked him to teach us how to fight.

'I´ll do it,' he agreed. 'But don´t let your father hear of it. I hear he´s intent on making ladies of you, and the average rich or noble lady does not fight.'

But, the captain of the guard was more than willing to take some time to teach us the basics of swordfighting, archery, and fighting with a staff and knives. He even gave us each a sword and a knife.

'I´ll have bows ready for you when you get back during your first vacation,' he said.

Our business only made our departure for finishing school come sooner. Bronwyn came to help us pack our trunks the night before raising her eyebrows when she saw our swords and knives in the bottoms of our trunks.

'I won´t tell,' She said, grinning. 'Now, here are the rest of your clothes. I just got them off the clothes line after the wash. Don´t worry, they´re perfectly dry.'

'Are you going to accompany us tomorrow to finishing school?' I asked.

'No,' Bronwyn said. 'Twelve year olds are old enough to do some things by themselves. Besides, the coachman will be with you to deliver your tution money.'

The following morning, we loaded our two trunks each into the coach, and set off. It was especially hard for us to leave Per and Roan, who had become our good friends, but we managed with only a minimum of tears.

The finishing school we were being sent to was called Dame Minchin´s, and though it was within the borders of Tel, our country, it was in the corner of Tel that joined Cadiffor, Girona, and Düssel so that it would be more accesible to girls from all of those places. As we later found out, this was the best finishing school in any of those four countries, and so the royal families, and many of the upper crust almost always sent their daughters to Dame Minchin´s.

None other than Dame Minchin was waiting for us on the steps. The next day was the start of the fall term, and so the majority of the girls were to arrive that day (some had arrived the evening before).

'Good morning girls,' she said in an overly cheerful, high pitched voice.

'Good morning madam,' Kate and I said in unison, curtsying.

'You must be King Petar´s daughters,' she said. 'I knew who you were immediately because you are the only identical twins we have this year. In fact, the only twins at all.'

Though she was cheerful, and did not look as witchlike as Aunt Achren, I got the distinct impression that she was much more of a witch than our aunt. I could only hope that it wouldn´t prove true.

Dame Minchin addressed our carriage carriage driver for the first time, accepting the sack of gold coins that our father had sent in payment. After a few minutes of polite conversation, our driver bade us farewell, and turned to leave.

'All right girls, follow me,' Dame Minchin said. 'I will show you to your rooms. My porters will bring up your trunks behind us.'

I noticed for the first time that four porters had materialized out of the dark interior of the building, and were dragging our trunks up the steps. We followed Dame Minchin into the building, and to the 'Residential Hall'. Kate and I were to be put with the most junior girls, most twelve like us, some eleven or thirteen, but all who were in their first or second term. The 'Junior Hall' took up near half of the second floor. The oldest girls in their third and fourth years were put on the first floor. (as we later learned, it was normal for girls to start finishing school at age twelve, or thereabouts, and stay for about four years. Many families pulled their daughters out at age sixteen, sometimes eighteen, bringing them to all the balls and official functions they could, hoping that by age 18, a man would be interested in them, or if not, at least by age 21.)

Kate and I were put in separate rooms. Kate was put in a room near the middle of the hall called the blue room. 'Blue Room' was indeed an appropriate name, as the wallpaper, decorations, bedspreads, and everything else was some shade of blue (except of course the woodwork and any metal). I was put in a room near the end of the hall, known as the 'Pink Room'. It was much the same as the Blue Room, only colored various shades of pink rather than blue. There were four beds in the room, three of which were already occupied. The porters had left my trunks next to the bed that I was to have.

'Well, I will leave you here to unpack,' Dame Minchin said, in her overly cheerful tone. 'New girls meet in the peformers´ hall in one hour. There I will explain everything you need to know.'

Kate ran in half an hour later, breathless.

'Guess who´s here,' she gasped.

'Who?' I asked.

'Hedwig,' she choked out. 'And her sister Henrietta.'


	7. Finishing school

I groaned. Hedwig was all right, but I hated having to put up with Henrietta´s condescending attitude every time I saw her at one of father or Aunt Achren´s balls. She had never missed an opportunity to make herself look better than us, though was careful enough to put up a good front to the rest of the world, so that nobody noticed she was trying to push us into the background.

'Isn´t she 18 already?' I asked. 'Why is she still here, instead of trying to ingratiate herself with all the right people, like most girls her age are?'

Kate shrugged. 'Hey, where are your roommates?' she asked.

It was my turn to shrug. 'I´ll meet them sooner or later. I hope I´ll like them. The room though, is annoying. Too pink for me.'

Kate laughed, helping me put the rest of my things away. We found Dame Minchin in the entryway, having just shown another girl to her room.

'Dame Minchin?' I asked.

'Yes dearie?' she replied.

'Where is the performer´s hall?' I asked.

Dame Minchin pointed down another hallway, and told us to go straight to the end. Kate and I stopped to look into a few rooms on the way. Some seemed to be classrooms of some sort, and some looked to be tea lounges or something of that sort. The performance hall was huge. It was built much like any theater, with a decent sized stage, and several hundred seats. It was not as big as the theater in Basel, but still had it´s own orchestra pit and balcony. It looked like most of the other girls were already there, waiting for Dame Minchin.

Maybe 20 women, and a few men, were arranged in seats on the stage. I assumed they must be the teachers. Kate and I found seats somewhere in the middle of the theater, and sat quietly until Dame Minchin entered, with the last few girls, who had arrived after we did.

Given Dame Minchin´s sappy welcome, neither of us was surprised at her equally sappy welcome speech. She introduced us to the teachers, and told us the rules. The school was, fortunately, not quite as strict as we feared, though we were still expected to behave 'like ladies' at all times.

Breakfast was served promptly at seven each morning, and classes would begin promptly at eight, five days a week. We learned that rooms were to be inspected for tidiness sometime during the morning while we were at class. The room with the best record at the end of the year would win some sort of prize, and of course, the recognition of being the tidiest.

I met my roommates after dinner that night. They were all twelve year old first-termers, like me. Arieda was also from Tel, not far from the school. Kiera was from Girona, and Brigit was from Düssel. They seemed nice enough, and I hoped that we could get along for the rest of the year. Between us, we reckoned that there were about thirty girls here in their first term, and between twenty five and thirty five girls in the other classes.

'And then there are some here that are older too,' Arieda said. 'My mother told me that some girls continue to take dance lessons, or music lessons all the way until they get married.'

'That explains why Henrietta is here,' I said.

'Henrietta? Who´s she?' Kiera asked.

'A really snotty older girl,' I said. 'You´ll probably pick her out on that account.'

'I don´t know,' Brigit said. 'My older cousin said that the older girls all get awful snotty at times.'

The next morning, we learned that the first term girls were divided into two groups for classes. I was disappointed to learn that I was not in the same class as Kate, Brigit, or Kiera, but at least Arieda and I were together. My first class was history. I lit up at this. I always loved history. As it turned out, three of my four morning classes were academic. After history, we had a music theory class, learning to read music, and learning about all the famous composers. After music came a Literature and writin class, followed by a language class. Düssel and Girona had rather different languages from Tel and Cadiffor. In Düssel, many spoke a language almost identical to German, and in Girona most spoke a language almost exactly the same as Catalan.

That afternoon, we began with sewing. Our teacher immediately set us to work on needlepoints, each of us working our own name into a pillow cover. I groaned inwardly. I detested needlepoint. If I am going to sew, I much prefer sewing something useful, like a dress. But, I kept my mouth shut. It would do me no good to earn a reputation as a whiner.

Next came practical music lessons. Everyone was expected to learn to play the piano to some extent during the whole first year, and during the second half pick up some other musical instrument. We were all expected to learn to ballroom dance next. We began with the basic waltz. Arieda and I finished our day with a singing class. I was quite exhausted by five o´clock, but our day was not done there. We had an hour free before dinner, and then at eight, we were expected to be in one of various dance rooms, for another form of dance, either ballet or jazz or lyrical. There was traditionally a show before the Christmas holidays, and one at the end of the spring term. At ten, we were finally freed. Most of us were so exhausted by that time that we quite willingly fell into bed.

Even Saturdays were not really free. We were 'allowed' to study painting, or sculpture, or to take private voice or instrument lessons. In reality, 'allowed' is not the appropriate word. First years were pretty much forced to study both painting and sculpture and only allowed to chose one or the other (or continue with both) after the first year. At least afternoons were free, as were Sundays.

Kate and I soon found where the stables were, as well as the gardens and kitchens. Girls were allowed to ride on any of the trails in the woods by the school, but usually only with a chaperone. Fourth years could go out without a chaperone, but only if in pairs or small groups.

It was not until nearly a month had gone by that I came in contact with Henrietta. She was as condescending as ever.

'Well if it isn´t the little princess,' she said upon seeing me.

'Nice to see you too Henrietta,' I replied as civilly as I could.

'I have seen your twin around, but I was afraid you weren´t here,' Henrietta said. 'You know, not every rich family bothers with the younger daughters. They are just not important enough.'

I bristled. 'Some of us at least have the hope of marrying well, or inheriting a throne from an aunt,' I retorted.

'Oh really?' Henrietta replied, raising an eyebrow. 'Inheriting another throne from an aunt are we? I was under the impression that she still had not chosen an heir. And I have just as much claim to a throne as you. More, because I am the elder, and your better. I suggest you remember it.'


	8. Henrietta

I asked Kate that night if Henrietta had been bothering her at all.

'Not really,' Kate said. 'I´ve only ever seen her in the halls. Why?'

'She´s getting a little threatening,' I said.

'How so?' Kate asked, stretching one leg.

'She acts like there is some big competition between us to be Aunt Achren´s heir,' I replied.

'I´m not completely surprised she´s picking on you more than me,' Kate said. 'I´m the older one, so unless something happens to me, I, and/or whoever I marry, will be taking over after father dies. You´re the one of us who might be named heir to Aunt Achren. You are competition as far as Henrietta is concerned, not me.'

I realized that she was right. I just had to prove myself worthy of being a queen. As I though about it, I wondered if I really did want to be queen. Many ordinary people seemed quite happy with their lives, as long as they had enough. _Why couldn´t I be like that?_ I wondered. _Because you are a king´s daughter_, a voice in my head told me.

I resigned myself to competing with Henrietta, and worked as hard as I could in all my lessons. I was certainly not the most brilliant student ever, nor the most gifted dancer, but my efforts were noticed and praised by the teachers. Yes, they were strict, but some were more lenient if they saw that a student was trying.

Henrietta continued to slight me when our paths crossed, though fortunately that was not often. I should have seen some trick coming, but did not, until it was too late. I walked into my room one evening to find the entire place in shambles. Someone had obviously come in here and ransacked the place. My roommates were all their waiting for me, and they all looked ready to beat me.

'What did you do this for?' Brigit asked.

'I haven´t been back to the room since this morning,' I said, incredulous.

'Neither have Brigit and I,' Kiera said. 'Arieda was with us during our free time, but we didn´t see you anywhere.'

'I was with my sister Kate,' I said. 'We went out for a ride.'

Technically that was true, but not entirely. We had ridden a short ways into the woods, given the riding master the slip, and begun practicing our knife fighting on each other. I could see in the other girls´ faces that they did not believe me.

'If I cleaned up the whole room by myself, will you please not do anything to me?' I asked.

The other girls looked at each other and nodded. I was not done until after eleven that night. I was quite worried, as I had a history test the next morning. Lights were out by eleven thirty, leaving me only enough time to get into my nightgown, brush my teeth, and wash my face. I suspected Henrietta, but I could not prove anything, as I had not seen her come in and do anything. I wondered if she had befriended one of my roommates, but I thought it highly unlikely, as we normally got on well together.

Life was calm for about a week before something else happened. Our room was found ransacked again, this time by the maids who inspected rooms every morning. Normally students were not chastised for a little messiness on occasion, but our room had been messed up so badly that we were called in for a lecture by Dame Minchin.

'This is the worst I have seen a room in years,' she said. 'You are not small children, and it is high time you learned to clean up after yourselves. I do not care that you all likely have maids to do this for you at home, but you seem to have understood the concept of cleaning your own room until now. I do not want to hear of this ever happening again, that your room is as messy as it was this morning. Now, get to your afternoon classes, before you are late. You do not want tardies blotting your resume.'

My roommates and I made a pact then and there that two of us would wait until the last possible minute every morning to make sure that our room was not messed up. That night we drew names. On Monday, Kiera and Brigit would stay. On Tuesday, Kiera and I would stay. On Wednesday, Arieda and I would stay. On Thursday, Arieda and Brigit would stay. Friday, Brigit and I would stay in the room. Saturday, Arieda and Kiera would stay. Sunday, there was no room inspection, and we let ourselves have the day off. We rotated this way for several weeks. Fortunately we did not have another incident.

However, my problems were hardly over. Henrietta would invent stories about me, telling them to the other girls to make them think less of me. My roommates and Kate stayed true to me, but many of the other girls did not. Though Henrietta was clever in not revealing herself as the source of these bad rumors, I caught Hedwig looking at me on occasion, as if she was guilty of something. One day I did manage to wheedle it out of her that her sister was the one spreading rumors. Hedwig told me that she felt guilty for not doing anything to stop her sister, but I thought to myself that she must not feel very guilty, otherwise she would do something. I thought it likely that Henrietta had threatened Hedwig to the point where Hedwig would go along with her older sister in whatever.

Dame Minchin called me in to her office one day. Older students had told me that she sometimes did this with first term students 'to make sure that they were adjusting to life at finishing school.' I was nervous, hoping that Dame Minchin had no cause to be angry with me.

When I entered her study, she bade me be seated, and seemed for all the world to think me a normal student. She reviewed my teacher´s comments and room inspection reports.

'Decent student, hard worker, only one bad report on room inspection, good, good,' she muttered. 'Now, I must ask you a question. What on earth have you done to bother Henrietta?'

I was startled by her question. She stayed in her study much of the day, dealing with the more business aspects of the school. That, and various rumors, had led me to believe that she could be out of touch with the everyday goings on at times.

'Don´t look so daft child,' Dame Minchin said. 'It is no secret that Henrietta has got something against you. She acts like a cat that is jealous of another cat circling its food dish.'

'I suppose that analogy is quite true,' I said. 'Lady Achren, Queen of Cadiffor, is aunt to both of us, and she has no children. I think, madam, that Henrietta sees me as competition.'

'That´s obvious. The horse master reports you and your sister giving him the slip one day. That made me suspicious that you had played some prank on Henrietta. I must advise you that to provoke Henrietta would be most unwise,' Dame Minchin said. 'Henrietta will do what she will, but you will pay. I hope you remember that our punishments are severe for those who start problems.'

'I understand madam,' I said.

'Good. You may go.'

I returned to my room to retrieve my sheet music. I hoped to practice in one of the music studios, it being a Saturday afternoon, but I found then all occupied. There was a chalkboard hanging ouside each of the three piano studio rooms, showing the reserve schedule for the day. Unfortunately others had claimed the studios for the rest of the afternoon, so I opted to go out to the gardens. There were garden plots availible for students to use in their free time, though many did not, as they were too prissy to get a little dirt on themselves, or too busy studying or practicing something.

I met Kate out there, who looked ready to kill someone or something.

'What´s the matter?' I asked.

'Finishing school,' she said. 'I don´t show it much, but it really gets under my skin. I hate a lot of the girls here. They are all so prissy and afraid to get the least bit of dirt on them. They are completely incapable of doing any manual labor at all, and some are horrible brown noses.'

'I know what you mean,' I said. 'Sure, classes are interesting for the most part, but that sewing class is something else again. All needlepoint, and no making anything useful. I hate it.'

'And you hate Henrietta too,' Kate pointed out.

'Yes, but I´m not really sure what to do about her,' I said. 'She´s a demon, but if I do anything to her and get caught, then I´m in trouble. How will that prove to Aunt Achren that I should be her heir and not Henrietta?'

'I didn´t realize you wanted to be queen,' Kate said.

'Not really, but I´m the next oldest after Henrietta,' I said. 'If Henrietta doesn´t live up to Aunt Achren´s standards, then I´m the one that she´ll look at next. I don´t really want to just let Henrietta be queen. She´s the type that would most likely misuse her power.'

'Very true,' Kate said. 'But why are you just sitting back and taking Henrietta´s meanness? You can´t let people just walk all over you.'

'Well, do you have any bright ideas for not getting caught?' I asked.

'I do actually. I discovered a secret passage the other day, but I hadn´t gotten the chance to tell you about it until now.'

'Really?' I asked, not totally believing her.

'Yes,' Kate said, nodding violently. 'Come on. We´ve got to start planning our campaign of resistance.'


	9. pranks

Kate led me to a back hallway, and waited a few minutes, to make sure that no one had followed us, or knew where we were. She counted five stones up from the floor, and ran her hand across the stone she had selected, before pushing right in the center. To my surprise, a door swung open.

'How did you know this was here?' I hissed.

'Shh,' Kate whispered, pulling me inside the passage. She lit a torch and shut the door as quietly as possible.

I looked around and saw a spiral staircase leading upwards.

'Are you going to tell me how you found this?' I asked.

'Snooping in Henrietta´s room,' Kate replied. 'I don't think Henrietta realizes that there is a hidden door behind her wardrobe.'

'How did you?' I asked.

'While snooping, I noticed a hollow noise when I accidentally hit the back of the wardrobe,' Kate replied. 'Come on.'

We climbed the stairs up to Henrietta´s room. We listened for a bit, to make sure that nobody was in the room, before opening the door and pushing the wardrobe aside. Fortunately it was not a big wardrobe, and fairly easy to move. Kate pulled a garden snake and a toad out of her bag, and quickly stuffed them in Henrietta´s bed.

I laughed. 'I just hope that Henrietta doesn´t kill the poor creatures,' I said.

'She´s too afraid. I read it in her diary,' Kate said.

The next morning, it seemed the whole school knew about Henrietta´s finding the snake and toad in her bed. Kate and I did our best to not laugh. Henrietta, of course, suspected us anyway, and found her ways to get back at us. We each found our rooms ransacked once, and occasionally a dress of ours would turn up ripped or dirty, though we had not worn it in some time.

Though Henrietta was not at school every week, she certainly managed to keep me on my toes. I had no idea who believed what about me now, and could only hope that with time, others could see that I was not everything that Henrietta said.

About two months into the term, I began to realize that my ballet/jazz instructor hated Henrietta as much as I did. Whenever someone mentioned Henrietta as a model, this particular dance instructor would purse her lips together in annoyance, and make some remark about what an impertinent, disagreeable little git Henrietta was.

Then one day, Henrietta waltzed into the studio while we were stretching.

'Oh, Miss Marie, do you have a minute that I could ask your opinion?'

Miss Marie reluctantly agreed.

'I have had my eye on Lucia, the girl over there for some time. She has so much potential that I would appreciate it if you could give her a little extra attention,' Henrietta said, in her sweetest voice.

'Don´t worry Henrietta,' Miss Marie said.

After that, Miss Marie did not waste any time in singling me out as an example of the way things ought not to be done. I was no better or worse than most of the other students in the class, but that did not stop Miss Marie from finding fault with me. I tried to approach her one day, telling her that Henrietta hated me, that this was only some plot to discourage me and make me look bad, but Miss Marie did not listen. Fortunately Kate came to my defense, explaining to Miss Marie that both Henrietta and I were in contention for being made heir to Queen Achren, our aunt. After that, Miss Marie lightened up on me, though I was never her favorite student.

Henrietta tried the same tactic from time to time with another teacher, but without the same success. Few had the same prejudice towards Henrietta that Miss Marie did, and so did not have the same interest in pushing me down.

I was glad to go home when the first term ended. We had three weeks vacation to be at home with our father. Our first night home, father held a party in honor of our coming home after a successful first term. And, I suppose, because he wanted to see if we had actually learned to dance and keep up polite conversation yet. I am sorry to say, Kate and I somewhat disappointed him. Father appeared to have forgotten that it may take all of four years to truly master some of the dances, and longer to learn to properly keep up a polite conversation.

Aunt Achren was also at this party, and a few from her husband´s family, as well as the nobles that my father had invited from Tel, our own country. I cornered my aunt part way through the dance. I wanted to know what she was going to do about me and Henrietta. Had she made up her mind yet?

When I asked her, she chuckled, and pulled me aside into the library.

'See here, Lucia,' she began. 'What would you think if I made Henrietta queen right now?'

'Oh dear Lord,' I said.

'Exactly. She would not be a good queen. Maybe one day she would be, but not now,' Aunt Achren said. 'Now what would you do if I said that I wanted to make you queen right now?'

'But I´m not ready to be queen!' I exclaimed. 'I don´t know anything about being a queen! I mean, I´ve seen how you behave in public, and how father behaves at parties, but still. . . .'

'I´m glad you think that way,' Aunt Achren said. 'It is often those who think that they are incapable, or temporarily not ready, that prove to be better leaders than those who think themselves to be the best person for the job. Not to say that self confidence is bad, or that those who think highly of themselves have no cause for it, just that those who do not have much confidence will often find themselves to be more capable than they once thought.'

'Sometimes I think that Henrietta has too much confidence in herself,' I said.

'Why?'

'She thinks that being the oldest makes her the best,' I said. 'But what about her sister Hedwig?'

'What about her?'

'Well, what if she turns out better than Henrietta? More talented, smarter. And what if you make Henrietta queen after you, thinking that Hedwig and I, and any of their cousins or siblings are too young for the job?'

'You think I´m that stupid? I do trust certain of my counsellors to act as regent until someone grows up,' Aunt Achren said. 'But, I will wait as long as I can before I choose, so that I may see what you all will grow up to be.'

I went to bed that night, still not very reassured. What if someone poisoned our aunt before naming a sucessor, and Henrietta claimed the throne, claiming that she is oldest, therefore has the most right to the throne. Kate had once said that making Henrietta the future queen would be like opening the door of the tiger´s cage. Henrietta would take that as license to do what she would.

I tried not to be preoccupied during the rest of my break. I cooked with Maggie, went to market with Bronwyn, and did all the other things I loved. Kate and I spent much of our time with Roan and Per, when we were not getting weapons training from the captain of the guard.

We learned much from Per about the elves. They mostly lived in the woods and mountains, and kept to themselves for the most part. As it turned out, Per was an elven prince, sent to Tel with his uncle and aunt to help establish friendly relations with us humans. Elves were not quite immortal, but had such long lives that many thought they were immortal. Many elves lived for five hundred years, occasionally all the way to a thousand. The best part, in my mind, was that they physically stayed young almost until the day they died. An elf could be five hundred years old, and look like a twenty or thirty year old human. Per himself was only twenty, a young un by elf standards.

Centaurs, on the other hand, did not live much longer than the average human, maybe to one hundred or one hundred twenty, as opposed to eighty. Kate and I were both quite fascinated to stay with them, listening to stories of their homelands. We were both quite sad to leave for our second term at finishing school.

The second term started well, and life was quiet for quite some time. I still wondered, however, when Henrietta would pull her next trick. She did not seem too pleased to hear that I was not scared away from school, and still did quite well in comparison to other students. I noticed that Henrietta seemed quite edgy much of the time. I supposed it was because she was already eighteen, marriageable age. Her parents, no doubt wanted to wait a little longer before pushing her into marriage, hoping that being made heir to a queen would increase her value, and they would have a better chance of her being noticed by a prince from another country, instead of just any wealthy family.

I was quite relieved that Henrietta played no major pranks on me that year, but continued to whisper bad words about me into the ears of the people with power. She also seemed to have recruited Hedwig in the fight against me. Hedwig was too nice to play pranks herself, but she was quite determined to beat me in every subject. When she did succeed, she gloated. But on the whole, our second term was not so bad.

Over the summer vacation, we returned to Aunt Achren´s, where we learned to take care of dragons, and took up dance again with Murphy. Murphy was quite pleased with our progress over the past year and praised us highly. This made me all the more determined to beat Henrietta.

That fall when we returned to finishing school, we learned found that the whole school seemed to know that we lived with our aunt, at least part of the time. And we became stigmatized for it.


	10. Kate

'Do you really live with that old witch Achren?' various girls asked.

At least they were never mean. Most were polite, though distant.

'Why do you all call her witch?' I asked one day.

'´Cause she is,' one of my roommates said. 'You honestly live with her and have to ask that?'

'Yes,' I said. 'She´s never showed the slightest hint of witchery.'

'She´s a queen without a king though,' another girl said.

'And?' I asked. 'She rules all right.'

The other girls looked at me as if I were strange for saying that. True, it was not normal for a queen to be queen without a king. Both king and queen normally lived to old age, and died within a few years of each other, leaving the kingdom to oldest son and his wife, or oldest daughter and husband, if they had no sons.

Most girls eventually realized that Kate and I were not witches, nor dangerous, and gradually became less frigid towards us. However, it seemed that Henrietta seemed to have fully pulled Hedwig into her feud with us. Hedwig worked her butt off to prove herself a better student than we were. Sometimes I saw in her eyes though, that she would have liked to be our friend, but was afraid to cross her sister.

Henrietta continued to take classes at the finishing school, and both Kate and I could see that the wait for a decision from Aunt Achrne was wearing on her. She was nineteen that year, and we heard rumors that she was engaged to a powerful noble of Girona. She continued to do what she could against Kate and I, me in particular.

The four years of finishing school continued this way, with me continually worried about what Henrietta might do. Kate and I found ourselves nominated for the Royal Ballet and Theater, but, of course, Henrietta got in the way of that. I was quite surprised when we were made understudies anyway.

The day that Hedwig, Kate, and I finished our fourth year, Aunt Achren called her nieces and nephews to come visit her for a week. Henrietta had recently been married to a rich duke from Girona, and he was brought as well. She grilled us for a few days, testing every ounce of knowledge we possesed, weighing our answers in her head. Henrietta, Kate, Hedwig, and I were the oldest of the twelve of us there. Everyone besides Kate and I were nieces and nephews of Aunt Achren´s late husband.

The final night of our stay, Aunt Achren called us all into the Great Hall, lining us up in front of her.

'Kate,' she said.

'Yes?' Kate asked, stepping forwards.

'You, as your father´s oldest, will inherit his kingdom. Do you wish to inherit mine as well?' Aunt Achren asked.

Kate looked startled. I doubt anyone expected this.

'Why so surprised child? You are already being prepared for rule by your father, or will be soon,' Aunt Achren said.

'Being the oldest does not necessarily make me a good queen, trained to be or not,' Kate said. 'Why am I a better choice than Lucia, Henrietta, or anyone else here?'

'I like your answer,' our aunt said. 'Princess.'

Kate´s jaw dropped. 'Are you calling me that because I am my father´s princess, or because I am now yours as well?'

'Yes, because now you are both,' our aunt replied. 'If you do not want my kingdom, you may pass it to someone else. But I advise you not to do it until after I am dead. I do not want to see any nitwits on my throne.'

I think I was the only one who noticed how her eyes flicked towards Henrietta when she said that. Everyone else was too busy looking daggars at Kate.


End file.
